Riftborne

The concept has great potential but the implementation is just bizarre. I like the text interface and I'm well used to that sort of thing from Dwarf Fortress, that's not the issue. The specifics of the interface are excessively cumbersome with hidden layers, information scattered around and so forth which isn't great. But the real deal breaker for me is that the underlying simulation seems to be built on artificial and arbitrary game rules rather than feeling like you're actually running a space empire. There is a perverse mechanic where ships are based at the planet they are built at, and can't relocate home base. You can send them somewhere else to 'reinforce' but then you can't move them even one tile over - they have to trek all the way back to home base and then all the way back out. Seems very counter-intuitive. Likewise if you want to move resources from A to B, good luck. You can send a freighter over to A but since it isn't 'based' there it isn't 'available' for resource transfer. You can set up 'cargo routes' for regular shipments, but they are strictly one way. So you can ship cargo from A to B, but the freighter must fly back empty. It's extremely natural for there to be an imbalance between A and B which naturally wants two-way trade. Tough - you need two freighters. Moreover the load/depart conditions are very basic and inflexible so most of the time your ships are idling. I could go on. There are many examples like this. The developer's vision seems so far removed from what I would consider a natural and obvious simulation that I don't think it's going to be fixed. Think of this more as a highly abstracted and arbitrary puzzle game with no instructions and a hostile interface rather than a simulation of a space empire.

Interesting take on the 4x, can't say I'm not enjoying the time I've spent playing it. Good: - Timer based simulation is an interesting mechanic. Advancing through the game is great, but also letting it run as you do stuff around the house is great too. - Looks great for a text based terminal game imo - Resource collection/upgrade loop plays well especially if you're a number goes up type of guy. Looking at economy and production mechanics through a use it or lose it type of lens is also something you don't see often in alot of in 4x's. - Plenty of flavor, corporate simulation with a stock market is a nice touch. Big reoccurring theme is many of the mechanics are simple but have a ton of depth, and are super unique. Helps the game stand out among similar games with higher graphical fidelity. Okay: - Still rough around some edges, but still getting plenty of updates from the dev. - I know it's limited by being terminal base, but UI and Docs could use some improvement. Too many clicks to get to certain actions or get a highlevel idea of what's happening. Some buttons/mechanics aren't explained too well in the guide (was struggling a bit with SPU's) Bad: - May be user error, but wasn't able to find an AI difficulty toggle and AI seemed dumb? Managed to cream the AI in classic mode pretty easily, within a few irl hours had a planet with a 1m+ pop while most other planets were under 10k? Will update review as I play it more Would recommend this game if you enjoy strategy games and are okay with the terminal UI, at any price under $15 I feel like its a steal, let alone at $8 for any fan of 4x's.

Have you ever wanted Stellaris but everything takes REAL actual human time? and a game plays over actual weeks? Wanna be a part of a passionate discord community and a heavily involved dev? wanna do all this in A LIVE server where this is all happening in real time? I didnt, but im seriously enjoying this game. If you dont mind a "spreadsheet simulator" eg. a game with no fancy graphics consisting mostly of menus, Riftborne is surprisingly great. Its a slow burn and takes some poking around and looking up some guides if you're slow like me.

This is EVE Online: Dwarf Fortress Edition A simple interface opens up the most intricate theatre of the mind. See you amongst the stars!

under the hood it's just a browser game in terminal. if you miss those times, get it, if you don't - don't. updated: stability might be is messy - in my play i encountered some bugs (but now they're fixed). but i'll try game again in a while.

EDIT: The developer himself contacted me (which was very kind) and has now update the game to work on Linux! I initially did a thumbs down review, but has now changed it into a thumbs up. Good work dev! <3 OLD NEGATIVE REVIEW: First I bought it on my Linux Mint computer as the game seemed interesting and up my sleeve as a strategy game, having played Warsim which I loved. But then I ran into problems. First, the game does not work on Linux right now. Does not even start. I switched to my gaming laptop which runs Windows and booted it up. Tried playing my first game, but the tutorial was so complex and in-depth I did not understand how to play the game. It seems to almost assume coding/programming knowledge to be able to grasp it. I felt kind of sad you have to be super smart to play, as the premise seemed awesome and I like sci-fi/strategy/terminal-games.

Incredible idea, but needlessly and indefatigably opaque.

Such a cool game! Terminal based and already quite in-depth. If you used to like browsergames like Tribal Wars, Ogame, and so on, you will like this =)